Dragons STEM

Seven intrepid Mosslands Year 9 students took on the “Make it” challenge.

Students making plans

Working in conjunction with The Manufacturing Institute and Survitec (a Birkenhead based company and international manufacturer of survival equipment.) Seven intrepid Mosslands Year 9 students took on the “Make it” challenge. Teams from schools all over the Merseyside area were challenged to set up their own manufacturing businesses and design products to aid survival in extreme situations.

The event, held at Aintree racecourse and aimed at creating partnerships between schools and the manufacturing sector, gave students a practical role playing challenge involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM subjects) and presentation and enterprise skills.

Making the pitch

Each member of the team was asked to choose the job that best suited their skills from a list of roles which included Managing Director, Finance Director, Sales and Marketing Managers, Design Engineer and more.

Throughout the course of the day each team had to design, cost and build a Survival Apparatus for Emergency (SAFE) Pod which would be used to provide shelter, food, etc. to people in a variety of situations ranging from earthquakes to sinking ships. In their new job roles, the pupils had to work as a team to develop a marketing campaign, work to a budget, deal with logistics and write a sales pitch.

At the end of the day, each team was given two minutes to pitch their company and product to a panel of ‘Dragons’ – real business experts from a range of backgrounds. The Dragons judged the pupils on teamwork, problem solving, and entrepreneurship, and challenged them with some tough questions following the sales pitches.

Although The Mosslands School did not finish in the top 2 this time, they thoroughly enjoyed the event and challenges and learned some valuable teamwork skills. As is expected of Mosslands students they displayed immaculate behaviour, mature attitudes and spoke confidently in front of all of the other teams and the “Dragons”.